The Street Parishes

Diocese of York

St Helen's, Amotherby

The parish of Amotherby has two churches, St Helen's Amotherby
and All Saints Appleton-le-Street.

The
church is dedicated to St Helen and there is no doubt that
this was the dedication from very early times. Wills dating from the
14th century refer to the “Chapel of the Blessed Helen of Amotherby.”
Helen was the wife of the Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus and their
son became Emperor Constantine in 306 A.D. Helen made a pilgrimage to
the Holy Land in search of relics; she believed she had found the cross
on which Christ was crucified.

St
Helen’s has always been a dependent chapel of All Saints,
Appleton-le-Street and therefore it is infrequently mentioned in
historical records. The first written reference to the church at
Amotherby occurs in 1218 in a charter of Pope Honorius III to St.
Albans Abbey; the Pope grants the churches of Appleton and Amotherby to
the Abbey.

In the porch of St. Helen’s are several Anglo-Viking
cross-heads found in the vicinity of the church dating from the ninth
to eleventh centuries and pointing to the antiquity of the site.

It is unfortunate that little remains of the earliest
building; the present form of the church dates from 1871 when the nave
was completely rebuilt and the north aisle added. (Of all the churches
along The Street only Appleton escaped the reforming zeal of the
Victorians.)

From writings prior to the rebuilding it seems that the church
of St. Helen was a very mean establishment in a poor state of repair.
At the rebuilding the original font, probably Norman, was removed and
now stands outside, adjacent to the porch.

The Tower

This
is the oldest part of the present structure, along with
the south door. The tower was rebuilt about 1500 using masonry from
earlier centuries. It has neither buttress nor string course and the
windows are square headed and mullioned.

The west door into the tower has a Norman arch with some later
Early English decoration. In Norman times the nave could be entered
through the tower, but this door was blocked up during the 19th century
reconstruction. The fine Norman arch can be seen from inside the tower.

The tower holds two bells, both mediaeval; one is inscribed
I.H.S. and the other, CAMPANA BEATE HELENE (The bell of Blessed Helen.)

The South Door

Is probably the oldest part of the building and is a
noteworthy example of late Norman architecture.

The Nave

The nave and chancel were rebuilt in 1871 in an effort to
improve upon the original Norman style - witness the frequent use of
dog-tooth ornamentation on the round headed arches.

During the reconstruction several ancient burials were
discovered under the church. The most interesting, as reported by the
local newspaper, was one of a young woman, lying under a heavy stone
slab carved with a human face. (This can be seen in the porch.) “At the
head of this grave, and apparently on the same level… was a stone
pavement, the stones of which were covered with between two and three
inches of burnt matter, with a large quantity of charcoal all around...
Among the burnt matter was an iron blade greatly corroded, as if the
end of a dirk, the point being gone – in fact such a weapon as would be
expected to accompany an Anglo-Saxon burial.”

The pew-ends, pulpit and font were designed and carved by the
Revd. C. P. Peach, vicar from 1834-1886

The Chancel and Sanctuary

On the south side of
the sanctuary is an effigy of a knight in
armour, not in its original position, the figure was discovered under
pews and moved here in 1871. The arms on the shield are those of the
Bordesden family who lived in the parish at Newsham in the 14th century
The effigy is of Sir John de Bordesden; a turbulent character who was
ex-communicated briefly in 1303 and died in 1329. Sir John was involved
in lengthy dispute with the Prior of Old Malton over grazing rights
between 1307 and 1310 and his men were repeatedly skirmishing with
those of the Prior. His effigy, dating from approximately 1330, is
quite unique in as much as it is one of only seven known showing a
knight wearing surcoat with sleeves, most are without sleeves.

The tomb on the north side of the sanctuary was found in the
churchyard near the tower in 1871- It bears an inscription in Norman
French, the language of the upper classes in England until about 1400:
ICI GIT WILLEM DE BORDESDEN PRIZ PUR LA ALME, (Here lies William de
Bordesden, pray for his soul.) He was either the brother or nephew of
Sir John, and died about 1340. The grave cover displays a fine foliated
cross.

The lancets of the east window contain glass designed by the
afore-mentioned Revd. C.P. Peach. The altar was presented in memory of
the Revd. Canon Harry Ward, vicar from 1893 — 1934.

Experimental reordering of the chancel has taken place in
autumn 2005 with the removal of the disused choir pews, the leveling of
the resulting area and the transfer of the Lady Chapel altar to serve
as a nave altar, bringing priest and people much closer together in the
celebration of the Eucharist. These changes will be evaluated and
adjusted as necessary over the coming months before applying for a
Faculty to make the changes permanent.

The Baptismal Font

Location: Parish Church of St. Helen, Amotherby, North
Yorkshire (England) -- (in the churchyard)

Date: 11th-12th century(?)

Period/Style: Anglo-Saxon? / Norman?

Notes on font: Listed in Cox & Harvey (1907) as a
baptismal font of the Norman period, although this same source suggests
that the font "may be Saxon".

Morris (1931) notes: "Outside porch,W. rude [i.e., crude],
circular, 12th- cent. font." Bulmer's Directory for this county (1890)
informs that "the old Norman font has been relegated to the
churchyard", the present "font (Hildenley stone) is supported by a
thick central shaft, surrounded by eight smaller ones of marble" and
was "designed and carved by the late Rev. C.P.Peach" ca. 1870 [source:
Transcription by Colin Hinson copyright 1999, in www.genuki.org.uk].
The basin well has a central drain; the upper rim has holes
corresponding to the hardware of an old font cover.